Poison Ivy Looking Skin Rash

by Jaime
(Binghamton, NY, USA)

poison ivy looking rash on underside of forearm

About a week ago, I noticed a rash on the underside of my left forearm that looked a lot like a reaction to poison ivy. There were red bumps forming, but it was not too itchy. The only problem was, I had not been near any plants at all, and neither were my clothes. I also hadn't come in contact with anyone in a while, so I had a strong suspicion that this skin rash was something else other than poison ivy.

After a couple days, the skin rash started to itch more and more. So, in order to relieve the itching a bit without scratching the bumps directly, I started poking the skin around the rash with my fingernails, leaving fingernail imprints on my skin surrounding the rash. I then noticed that a few minutes after doing this, the fingernail imprints would turn red and also looked a little like a rash (although a different sort of rash from the poison-ivy-looking one). This was truly strange because my skin has never been so sensitive before. When I tested the same corresponding spot on my right arm (the arm without the poison ivy-like rash) by poking with my fingernails, the imprints caused no rash and went away in a little while. So there was definitely something wrong with the patch of skin on the underside of my left forearm.

A couple days later, I had to go meet friends, and because I didn't want anyone to see the gross rash, I put a large adhesive bandage over it. When I returned home several hours later, I removed the bandage to find that the adhesive border had left a red square outlining the rash. What is weirder is that this red mark from the adhesive remained noticeable on my arm for about five days afterwards.

There is something definitely wrong with this patch of skin on the underside of my left forearm. For the past several days, I have been regularly applying an aloe gel and lac-hydrin 5 to the area, and the redness and bumps have gone down considerably (although this reduction could simply be due to the passing of time). But although the rash seems to be going down, my fingernail imprints are starting to form faint scars. This is all very strange. Someone please help.